Emmys Best Tina Fey: the standing ovation

There are so many reasons to love Tina Fey. And we’ve been through so many of them on this blog. Last night she gave us one more. Or maybe just Duana and me. Did you see it during Michael J Fox’s standing ovation?

Look, of course it sucks that he has Parkinson’s. Of course we all love him. Of course if he was on stage because he’d won something, a standing ovation would have been appropriate. But...he’s not, like, 85 years old. He’s also back in television and several networks bid aggressively for the show and it was a big deal so... there’s no reason to think he won’t be around. Giving him a standing ovation then when he’s a presenter, while a lovely gesture, is also, kind of, a condescending one, a pity ovation. Oh look at you, you’re sick and you’re still here! It’s gross. Michael J Fox doesn’t need that and to me it looked like he may not have been into it either.

You know who for sure wasn’t into it though?

Yes. Tina Fey.

Watch her face as everyone around her is getting up to clap which pretty much forces the other people who didn’t get the “we should stand up to clap for the sick guy” memo to stand up and clap. The expression is perfect:

Really? Is clapping really the right move here? Do I have to get up? These people are bullying me into getting up.

And it’s not that Michael J Fox isn’t getting mad respect from Tina Fey. This is not about disrespect. This is about being compelled to collectively feel something that doesn’t need to be felt in that moment, one of those strange social moments that Tina is so brilliant at identifying and parodying in her work.